1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management method and a management system and, more particularly, to a manufacturing system, a measurement data collecting system, and a measurement terminal apparatus primarily for storing data, such as inspection results, managing and analyzing measurement data, and supporting diverse types of measuring instruments in, for example, a production control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various types of management and control, including production control, process control, and resources management. In the manufacture of a finished fabricated article (hereinafter referred to as a “product”), it is necessary to inspect the product and its components or the like from the stage of designing the products and the components to the manufacturing process of the product in order to control the quality or the like of the fabricated components, including the components that are not directly used with the product, and to ensure stable production of the product. It is also necessary to control environmental conditions, such as ambient temperatures, setting of manufacturing equipment, and manufacturing conditions, in the manufacturing process.
In this case, there are some fabricated components that are not entirely discrete. For instance, when a molded component is fabricated, the component is designed, the mold therefor is designed, the mold is fabricated, then the molded component is produced in a large quantity by using the mold. Hence, the fabricated mold significantly influences the quality of the molded components. This means that the inspection of the mold is extremely important, and the component may have to be redesigned, depending upon inspection results. It is of course necessary to also inspect molded components. Accordingly, the inspection of a fabricated mold may be said to be associated with the molded components and the accuracy of the inspection results thereof. Furthermore, when fabricating an assembly formed of assembled components, the inspection of each component considerably influences the quality of the assembly. It is needless to say that the quality of the final product using the components heavily depends upon the quality of the components.
In the inspection, physical dimensions, accuracy, and the like are measured and determined whether they are within specified ranges, and the products are also checked for abnormal appearance. Then, normally, a person in charge of the measurement writes down the measurement results at predetermined positions in a predetermined form. Subsequently, a person requesting for an operation, a person responsible for process control, or the like (the same persona may be responsible for both) perform an analysis on the basis of the form to carry out maintenance or the like of production equipment and measuring instruments.
A system is constructed in which an apparatus for processing input measurement results, for example, (hereinafter referred to as a “measuring apparatus”) and a host computer is connected in order to support such a measuring operation and data control. The host computer transmits operating instruction data, which is the data directing the details of the operations and processing (objects to be measured, measurement positions, measuring instruments, etc.) to be performed by a measuring operator (hereinafter referred to as a “measurer”) or a measuring apparatus, to a measuring apparatus. The measuring apparatus then causes a displaying means to display the details of the operating instruction data. The measurer performs measurement based on the displayed data. Measurement results are displayed by the displaying device of the measuring apparatus and transmitted to the host computer in the form of data signals to be accumulated or stored as measurement data in an accumulating device or a storing device, such as an HDD, in the host computer.
The system described above, however, is limited to the type in which a measuring instrument capable of directly exchanging data signals with a measuring apparatus is able to output signals containing digital data on the basis of commands. Hence, if no measuring instrument is involved as in the case of, for example, visual inspection, then the inspection results are basically written in a form, which is a paper medium. This means that no further processing of the inspection results can be performed, making it impossible to support the analysis carried out by a process controller or the like. In addition, the results of the inspections performed in various steps for manufacturing products are mutually independent especially among assembly components. This makes it impossible to relate them to each other, thus preventing the quality of the finished products from being evaluated and guaranteed.
Furthermore, measurement, for example, is performed during an inspection, and an operation requester inputs operational instruction data prior to the measurement. However, the apparatus that permits such input is limited to, for example, a host computer. This means that a large quantity of concentrated operational instructions cannot be quickly processed. In addition, a process controller has to normally check, for example, measurement results, on a measuring apparatus; therefore, if the measuring apparatus is being used for measurement, then such check cannot be carried out. Moreover, only restricted types of measuring instruments permit direct exchange of data signals with the measuring apparatus. Accordingly, if a measuring instrument is not capable of handling visual inspection or the like, a measurer enters measurement results in a form, which is a paper medium, then enter them as data in a host computer or the like later. There has been no established system to immediately check for obvious errors involved in measurement, such as input errors, missing inputs, measurement errors, or mix-up of measuring instruments. If such errors occur, it is difficult to identify the situation of a measuring operation.
Furthermore, in the system described above, if, for example, the measuring apparatus can be accessed by an unauthorized person, then the data accumulated in an accumulating device may be modified, allowing the data to be falsified. Moreover, data regarding all measurements is not stored in the accumulating device, so that not all data can be printed out on a form even though the data can be referred to. The data displayed is only the results, namely, OK or NG, rather than being displayed in the form of numerical values; therefore, a measurer or operator cannot see a trend or whether the numerical measurement values are within a tolerance. The system does not have a function for processing obtained data regarding measurement results (hereinafter referred to as “measurement data”). The apparatus adapted to implement processing during measurement exchanges data with a host computer wherein a variety of data is accumulated so as to implement the processing, so that the apparatus cannot perform a measurement operation if it is disconnected from the host computer.